Tag: organ

Media playback is unsupported on your deviceLucia Mee has been awarded a British Empire Medal for her work raising awareness of organ donation.The 18-year-old, from Ballycastle in Northern Ireland, who has had three liver transplants - the first aged eight - is the youngest person on the New Year Honours list.She campaigns for organ donation to be taught in schools and for everyone to sign the organ donation register.She previously told the BBC that each new organ was "a gift".Miss Mee was diagnosed with auto immune hepatitis when she was young and told she needed a new liver.However, two transplant surgeries in 2007 and 2009 ended in her body rejecting the new organs and she received her third new liver when she was 16.'Education and conversation'"For me, it has always been a special thin...

Former teen idol David Cassidy is in hospital after reportedly suffering organ failure.The US actor and singer, 67, is "conscious and surrounded by family" after being rushed to hospital in Florida earlier this week, his spokeswoman said.He had been in an induced coma following kidney failure and needs a liver transplant, according to reports.Cassidy revealed earlier this year he was battling dementia after video emerged of him performing erratically in California.Image:David Cassidy performing in Nashville in 2012He forgot the words to some of his own songs and yelled at a fan to turn off a light that he claimed was blinding him.Cassidy later told People magazine he had been in "denial" about his illness and he had decided to stop touring, saying he wanted to "enjoy life".Cassidy shot to ...

The most genetically modified animals in existence have been created to help end a shortage of organs for transplant, say US researchers. The scientists successfully rid 37 pigs of viruses hiding in their DNA, overcoming one of the big barriers to transplanting pig organs to people.The team at eGenesis admits preventing pig organs from being rejected by the human body remains a huge challenge But experts said it was a promising and exciting first step. The study, published in the journal Science, started with skin cells from a pig.Tests identified 25 Pervs - porcine endogenous retroviruses - hidden in the pig's genetic code.Experiments mixing human and pig cells together showed those viruses could escape to infect human tissues.But the researchers then used the game-changing gene-editing t...

Kellye Pummill will never get to see her deceased daughter, Marissa Pummill, walk down the aisle but she did get to watch the man whose life was saved by one of Marissa Pummill’s organs walk his own daughter down the aisle. “It was bittersweet,” Kellye Pummill, of Mesa, Arizona, said of attending Kiasa VanCleave’s wedding last month in Idaho. “And very emotional.” Kellye Pummill’s daughter took her own life in October 2014 at the age of 21. Just one week after her death, Marissa Pummill’s liver was transplanted into VanCleave’s dad, Troy Westover. “It means that she lives on. She lives on in six other people,” Kellye Pummill said of her daughter, whose organs were donated to six people in total. "Troy would have never been able to walk his daughter down the aisle." Troy Westover, 43,